Former Governor Terry R. McAuliffe easily won the nomination to be the 2021 Democratic candidate for Virginia governor during Tuesday’s Democratic Primary Election.
With just 454,664 people voting in the election statewide, McAuliffe took 61.78 percent of all ballots cast in the gubernatorial race. His next closest competitor was Senator Jennifer McClellan, who garnered just 11.59 percent of the vote.
McAuliffe will now face off against Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin in the November election.
Hala S. Ayala, a former cybersecurity specialist with the federal government, won the nomination to be the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, carrying 37.36 percent of the vote, with Sam Rasoul coming in second, with 24.24 percent. Ayala will run against Republican candidate Winsome Sears in November.
Finally, incumbent Attorney General Mark Herring readily prevailed over his single challenger, Virginia Delegate Jerrauld C. Jones, winning 55.87 percent of the vote to Jones’ 44.13 percent.
Local results
The local election results followed the statewide trend. In Gloucester, McAuliffe won 68.72 percent of the vote, Ayala took 51.86 percent of the vote, and Herring garnered 55.16 percent of the vote. In Mathews, the results were McAuliffe, 68.6 percent; Ayala, 51.72 percent; and Herring, 60.28 percent.
Local turnout in the primary was low, with just 1,347 people, or 5 percent of qualified voters, voting in Gloucester and 432 people, or 6 percent of qualified voters, voting in Mathews. These were preliminary results that still needed to be confirmed by canvass as of Wednesday morning.
Voting absentee by mail and early in person proved to be just as popular in the primary election as they were during the November election, with 304 of 1,347 Gloucester voters choosing one of those methods, and 155 of Mathews 432 voters doing so.
Mathews General Registrar Carla Faulkner said there were no problems during the election, even with the new electronic poll books.
“It was a nice, quiet, smooth day,” she said.
Gloucester General Registrar Bobbi Morgan said the day was very quiet and slow in Gloucester, as well. She expressed appreciation to her “awesome staff,” as well as the Electoral Board and “the dedicated election officers that served our community and all the voters that came out to vote.”
“I appreciate each and every one of you,” Morgan said.